ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1662936
This article is part of the Research TopicPsychological dimensions of sport and active living: Impacts on health and performanceView all 5 articles
The Influence of the Youth Olympic Games on the Well-being of Youth Athletes
Provisionally accepted
- 1UiT Norges arktiske universitet Idrettshogskolen, Tromsø, Norway
- 2Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- 3Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Participating in sports is more than a competition; it is an avenue for personal growth and development, especially for young athletes. The Youth Olympic Games (YOG), established by the International Olympic Committee in 2010, is a unique platform for athletes aged 15 to 18 to showcase their skills while gaining invaluable life experiences. This study explores the influence of participation in the YOG, focusing on athletes' physical, mental, social, and emotional well-being. Using a retrospective mixed-methods framework, 173 participants (47% female and 53% male) who competed in one of the four YOG events held between 2010 and 2016 were surveyed in 2017, followed by interviews 6 months later in 2018 with 30 of the participants. Quantitative data on 18 well-being items assessed on a 5-point Likert scale was analyzed with a one-sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and the interview data was analyzed using a top-down thematic approach. Participants' responses were significantly above "neutral" (P<0.001) on the 18 items about the YOG impact, suggesting a positive effect of the YOG across the four dimensions of well-being. The interviews complemented and informed the survey by providing deeper insights and context, to show that taking part in the YOG and its educational programs influence, and are important for the young elite athletes' psychometric development. Recognizing this impact, more attention should be given to developing tools and strategies to support the social and emotional well-being of youth elite athletes in sports. A better understanding of the impacts of participating in the YOG can foster a healthier, more informed generation of athletes and community members.
Keywords: Athlete development, elite youth sport, Mental Health, sport psychology, sportparticipation, Mixed-methods Research
Received: 09 Jul 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Stålstrøm, Iskhakova and Andersson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jannicke Stålstrøm, jannicke.stalstrom@uit.no
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.